We are not making the playoffs!

 Shock value enough for everyone?

The stat heads had us with a 99.9% chance of making the playoffs after the weekend.  I agreed with that as it looks like all the teams with over .500 records were going to make the playoffs in the AL and we were are 26-15 after Monday meaning that could go 5-14 for the rest of the season and still finish 31-29. I figured we would go at least 2-1 against the Royals and then find a way to win 6-10 the rest of the way and 34-28 would have been a lock for the playoffs.  

It all looked so easy although I had trepidation that it would be a 2-and-done in the playoffs as we weren't scoring runs. 

But still we were going to be above .500  AGAIN and make the playoffs.

Now, I don't know if we will be above .500.

Look, we are 26-19.   We have two more games (and likely two more losses) against the Twins and then we go to Chicago to play the Cubs.  That's likely two more losses.  That puts us at 26-23.

Then we go to Detroit after having lost 8 in a row and play 4 against the Tigers.

Let's assume we split those 4, making us 28-25.

Then we come home and end the season with 4 against the White Sox.   Let's say we go 1-3 as the Sox are playing well and we suck.  Now we are 29-28.   We then finish the season with 3 against the Pirates.   Let's say we go 2-1 in those games.   That makes us 31-29.  

Still, that's 2 games over .500, right?   Well, here's the problem with that.   Here are the teams we are fighting with for wildcard spots:

The Yankees are 24-21.  They finish with the Orioles, Blue Jays, Red Sox and Marlins.   This could go either way for them but let's assume they go 7-8 the rest of the way, giving them the same record as us.

The Astros are 22-23.  They have 2 tough ones against the Dodgers this weekend but after that they play nothing but teams that are below .500 and out of their playoff races.   Let's assume they lose 2 to the Dodgers but go 9-6 the rest of the way, which is conservative.  That puts them at 31-29.   

Look, it's likely that the Yankees do better then 7-8 and it likely that the Astros do better than 9-6 (after the Dodgers).   If both of those things happen we are NOT going to make the playoffs.

We will have gone 5-14 at the end of the season (mostly after the trade deadline) if things work out the way I think they will.   We will have done this, essentially, in the period after we got rid of Clevinger and got NOTHING that will help us this year and very little that will help us next year in trading Clevinger.   We would have thrown away the entire season, wasted every dollar we spent and got nothing to make us think that next year will be any better.

So, once again, we will have kept our heads slightly above mediocrity for the nth year in a row but still not had a good team because we wouldn't pull the trigger on a deal that could help.   The last time we had a chance we got just what we needed, Andrew Miller.  We know how that turned out in 2016.    

Here is an eye-opener for the Indians brass.   Being slightly above mediocrity is not the goal.   Every year we do that it just wastes EVERY dollar you spend.   EVERY dollar.   No one in this town or in baseball cares about being slightly better than mediocre and, frankly, your juggling act designed to just keep our heads above water and your boasting of how we have so many years of being over .500 and having one of the best records in baseball over the past few years has worn thin with this fan.  Yeah, you are great at avoiding a rebuild, great.  Just lets play above .500 ball and watch our good players get out of town for very little return and hope that our player development people can keep pulling rabbits out of their hats to keep us slightly above .500.

You had a chance to go for it this year and you choked.   When we traded Sabathia we got, essentially, one player back, Brantley.   Thus we treaded water there.   When we traded Cliff Lee we got, essentially, one player back: Carlos Carrasco.  Treading water again.   When we traded Trevor Bauer we got one player back, Franmil Reyes.   Again, treading water.   With Clevinger I don't know, looking at the guys we got back, how we can expect more than one of them to make any noise in the future, if that.   This was not a Bartolo Colon trade where we got Lee, Phillips and Sizemore.   This was just another trade that, at best, will help us tread water and at a time when were primed to make a deep run in the playoffs if we just got some hitting

You know the most comical thing about this?   The Padres traded Oliveras to the Royals for a middle reliever, Trevor Rosenthal.   Oliveras in this series had more hits than the entire Cleveland outfield did.  So we didn't even get the one guy who was traded by the Padres that we needed.   Is that pathetic?  Yes, it is.